Here's a report from my first day at the Dubai International Film Festival. I recorded an episode for the Tea with Culture podcast with Wael Hattar plus guest and film Twitter friend Barry Freed. We discussed the films we watched yesterday: Certain Women, Nerruda, Like Crazy, Sieranevada and Honey, Rain and Dust.

I've also shared below Twitter moments with highlights from my first day.

Here's the first of our daily reports for the Tea with Culture podcast. Wael Hattar and I will be sharing reviews and highlights of what we watched, and hopefully a few interviews too.

We start off with a preview of the festival where we discuss the strong presence films about women in this year's edition, we also highlight some of our must fee films and take a look "DIFFerent Reality" a new section of the programme that will showcase an international selection of virtual reality films.

Please follow, subscribe and listen to Tea with Culture on Soundcloud or on iTunes, and let us know what you think.

I realised that this year is a little different selection than what I would usually select for myself, possibly due to the notion that many will be later be available via online streaming services like Netflix. There are more smaller films in my list this year, with a lot more sloooooow art stuffs than my usual film fest typical fair. It's still dark, but a lot more quirky and innocent look at things than before.

Usually Hind and I find a theme at every DIFF, and so far this year seems to be about telling stories about women (and many children too) which is a great change to the usual male gaze driven look-on-life-through-film that we usually get globally. So for "Wael’s point of preView", here is my top 20 in the order of what I really want and hope to see the most (and hopefully not get too disappointed).

Additionally, a mini call out to the short films at DIFF this year, as more of them seem very promising. Try to catch Muhr Short 1, Muhr Short 3, and Muhr Gulf Short 2, there seems to be at least two very good shorts in each.

Looks funny and thoughtful. About two ladies suffering different levels of depression and bipolar disorders who escape an institution in Tuscany of all places. Picked up a lot of awards for the film and it’s actresses.

What is essentially a three hour character study has been reviewed very positively and lauded as one of the films of the year, but you have to pay attention as this film doesn’t spoon feed the viewer anything. Having watched the director’s other award winning film The Death of Mr Lazarescu at DIFF 2005, I know to have patience for the dark comedy and the bits of hidden insights and foreshadowing. Then again, it might just be a family trapped at an occasion fighting with each other for three hours.

Animated movie about on teenage identity - the body switching story is less awkward comedy and more into the thinking behind the situations. Beautifully animated, this was a huge hit in Japan and a hit with the critics too.

Egyptian film, an absurd film about a man in love with a goat that could lead to an interesting look at contemporary Egypt. Plus, I like the writer’s work on older films including El Ott which he wrote and directed).

This animation did really well at festivals, this non-verbal film has also had some not so positive points about it’s rather loose story telling, but also praised for its wordless portrayal of life and it’s cycle.

This look at an executioner’s job, it tells a story but should also bring up questions on ethics, control as well as religion, since it comes down to taking life. This young director’s second film has gotten great international reviews.

Set in the 1930s when there was discrimination against the Lapps, a young girl has to change who she is to adapt. Harsh reality and a good debut feature from the director who’s story is based on her grandmother.

Working on themes of the war as well as separation of caste and the strict rules whilst still managing to keep the points of view of two children, this film did well to grab the attention of the many film fest goers. The film talks of generations and building a new one with the ways of old, and if anything is a point of view from a relatively cinema quiet far off place.

Foreign BodyDirector: Raja Amari Rating: 15+ France and Tunisia | Arabic and French dialogue with English and French subtitles | 92 mins

Acting seems superb, and Hiam Abbas is great anyway great, so I am looking forward to this. Many reviews say it could have been great but just didn’t take that step forward, but rather stuck to the not-super-strong three haracter study. A few comparisons to “Parisienne” which showed last year at DIFF, so should be a decent film to catch.

Knowing Ben Hania’s dark subtle satiric sense of humour (Challat of Tunis at DIFF 2013) I am looking forward to see what she can do with this documentary about a six year old girl moving to Canada who decided to hate it and its snow.

This quiet film tells a tale of a woman in her land of related males trying to do the right thing and witnesses her interaction. The few reviews out there were very favorable and the clip I found was quite eerie and uncomfortable.

When you have nothing else but the waves, what better way to distract yourself form the horrible reality but to put your head in the watery sand. The story told looks fresh and possibly a combination of sad and hopeful like how life is. Reviews are an interesting flow between “where is the true war and drama?” to “a fresh look at life outside of the usual”. I just hope the film itself doesn’t only just dwell on the 15 year old girl surfer and use it as a crutch to interest the west.

Beautiful visuals about the creation of the world and time voiced by Cate Blanchette. Compared to the 20min opening sequence of his film “Tree of Life”, most critiques liked where Malik has finally reached whereas there are a few who are not pleased. So in the end, this specific type of documentary visual is really up to my taste. If you are going to see it, then do so at the cinema.

The 13th edition of the Dubai International Film Festival is on from 7th - 14th December. This year's line up includes 156 films (full features and short films) from 55 countries. This is an increase in number of films compared to last year which was 134. Additionally, there's a new section added to the festival's programme focused on 3D films titled DIFFerent Reality, and it looks like there's a focus on 3D in general at this festival. The films included in this section are all short films and will be curious to see the response to these films.

The good news is there is a diverse selection of films from 55 countries and I am looking forward to discovering new gems.

Below are my top 30 picks (in alphabetical order) for this year and you can see the complete festival line up here. I said this last year and will repeat it again, the films screening at the festival wll NOT be censored, never have been. If you're concerned films with adult content will be edited, fear not. You will get to watch the film in original format.

A beautifully mannered character drama from writer/director Mike Mills set in Santa Barbara of 1979 and focusing on teenager Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), who lives with his singer mother Dorothea (Annette Bening).

Worried that she cannot seem to connect with her son, she enlists help from would-be artists Abbie (Greta Gerwig), who rents a room at their house, and Julie (Elle Fanning), Jamie’s childhood friend who he is in love with, to try and help him figure out what it is to be a man. With delightfully drawn characters and great dialogue, the film is made with a delicate poignancy.

Photographer Seifollah Samadian (also a friend and collaborator of Abbas Kiarostami) put together this affectionate and insightful documentary after the death in Paris of the influential Iranian director and artist, utilising footage that takes in many phases of his busy artistic career.

There are no interviews, which allows the footage to reflect Kiarostami’s own simplicity as a technical filmmaker and shows his sense of playfulness and embrace for the world around him, while the title reflects not only the running time but also that he died aged 76 and 15 days old.

After the StormDirector: Hirokazu Kore-EdaJapan | Japanese dialogue with English and Arabic subtitles | 117 mins

When it comes to tackling the nature of complexities of family relationships, there are few better than Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda, who has nimbly dissected similar themes in recent films such as Like Father, Like Son and Our Little Sister.

This film is lighter in tone than some of the earlier dramas, but it suits the gently funny structure that mulls over father-son relationships, as it focuses on former novelist - and now private eye and gambling addict – Ryota (Hiroshi Abe), as he struggles to stay in his son’s life. Delightfully nuanced characters and strong use of imagery help Hirokazu’s film achieve the perfect balance of humour and pathos.

Recently deceased Polish film legend Andrzej Wajda delves into a dark episode in his home country’s history in his last film. In Afterimage he focuses on avant-garde painter Wladyslaw Strzeminski (Boguslaw Linda), who loses an arm and leg in the First World War, but who goes on to become an acclaimed abstract painter, teacher and who stands up against the strict dictates of Stalinist code of Socialist Realism.

He is reduced to poverty and with rich irony one of the few jobs he can find is painting massive banners of Stalin in heroic manner. Beautifully-made and driven with typical Wajda passion and insight, it is a fascinating glimpse into Polish history.

Yehia is a chef who runs a catering company with his two sons, Refaat and Galal. Refaat is a passionate cook, while Galal is quite the ladies’ man. Yehia’s niece Karima, is promised to wed Refaat, but Refaat is in love with Shadia, and Karima too is in love with someone else – but is waiting for an appropriate moment to reveal her ‘secret’.

During a peasant’s wedding, catered by Yehia and his sons, an offer is made for the business, which Yehia refuses, and results in interesting developments.

Writer/director Kelly Reichardt confirms and consolidates her credentials as one of the great chroniclers of unromanticised moments in the lives of American women (and those they interact with). This adaptation of a series of short stories by Montana native Maile Meloy is elegantly sustained and beautifully performed.

The three stories – starring Laura Dern, Michelle Williams (a regular player in Reichardt’s films) and Kristen Stewart – are loosely connected and resolutely low-key in terms of broad drama. And yet, they they are all impressively textured, subtle and strikingly performed as they chart moments from ordinary working lives in the Big Sky Country.

A delightful documentary that beautifully explores the fast-waning days of the grand tradition of tent cinemas, which have long toured the remote villages of Maharashtra in western India.

While beautiful to look at – from the aged equipment, enthralled viewers, faded tents and aged projectionists – it is also moving and insightful, as it delves into the precarious world of film exhibition on the road and the expected impact on it from pirated DVDs and cable television.

But the underlying joy that accompanies these tent cinemas makes Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya’s film a documentary to cherish.

Influenced by Carl Dreyer’s THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928), EGYPTIAN JEANNE D’ARC is a modern documentary fusing genres through dance, poetic narrative and mythology to examine women's circumstances in present day Egypt. In the context of post-revolution Egypt, the film explores issues of women’s emancipation by drawing attention to women’s repression and their feelings of guilt particularly amongst Egyptian female artistes.

Director Zeki Demirkubuz’s modestly mounted, yet astute and classically made film has in its sights an attack on traditions that still keep women in society without rights. The story focuses on seamstress Emine (Aslıhan Gürbüz), who struggles to look after her son Mete, after her husband left her behind with debts.

When her son needs urgent medical treatment, her old flame Ziya (Taner Birsel) offers to help pay bills and soon the pair are lovers. But in true melodramatic fashion her husband returns, and is expectedly angry and drama ensues.

Foreign BodyDirector: Raja Amari Rating: 15+ France and Tunisia | Arabic and French dialogue with English and French subtitles | 92 mins

Like hundreds of illegal immigrants, Samia lands on European shores. Haunted by the fear of being followed by her extremist brother whom she had denounced to the authorities, Samia first finds refuge at Imed’s home, a former acquaintance from her village, before ending up working for the rich widow Leila. These new meetings mingle with her headlong flight, where desire enhances tensions.

FrantzDirector: François OzonRating: PG France and Germany | French and German dialogue with English subtitles | 113 mins

French writer/director François Ozon’s black-and-white period drama is beautifully elegant and painfully sad, but driven by memorable performances and an underlying sexual tension. Pierre Niney stars as Frenchman Adrien, who arrives in a small German town just after the First World War to lay flowers at the grave of Frantz, who had died in combat.

He gets to know Frantz’s parents as well as his fiancée Anna (Paula Beer), all of whom are still in mourning, but welcome him when he says he knew Frantz when he studied in Paris. But as truths slowly emerge, his link to Frantz is gradually revealed. A beautiful and gently profound film.

Aisha, Fatima and Ghareeb are amongst the best known honey specialists in the northern parts of the UAE. Ghareeb is also considered a beekeeper because he established a sanctuary at the top of the mountains, where he can be in control of the surrounding environment and protect his honeybees.

Fatima and Aisha prefer to roam the mountains freely to find the highest natural honey. Meanwhile, the bees are coping with climate change, survival challenges and the production of honey. Involuntarily, the bees have become integral to the lives of Aisha, Fatima and Ghareeb. But, for how long and to what extent can the bees keep providing?

The debut feature from Indian filmmaker Shubhashish Bhutiani is a charmingly gentle drama about a father and son getting to know each other while also dealing with life's realities. After a dream, 77-year-old Daya (Lalit Behl) decides he needs to travel to the sacred ghats at Banaras before he dies, and recruits his son Rajiv (Adil Hussain) to accompany him.

Their journey is laced with humour and pathos as the pair gradually make their peace while on their journey, eventually making their way to the Hotel Salvation, a place where the elderly spend their final days.

The sheer filming elegance of Feng Xiaogang dovetails perfectly with Fan Bingbing’s powerful lead performance as a woman, who takes on Chinese bureaucracy, as she stubbornly fights to restore her honour after a false divorce and charges of sexual misdeeds.

The film is presented in a round frame, which helps give a deeper sense of peering into the troubled life of village woman Li Xuelian (Fan Bingbing) as she fights her way up the convoluted Chinese legal ladder to seek justice. It is a beautifully structured film, blessed with a playful dark humour.

Director Behnam Behzadi’s engrossing and engaging new film features a striking lead performance from Sahar Dowlatshahi as Niloofar, a confident and driven single woman, who owns her own tailoring shop in Tehran.

She appears in control of her life, but when her ill mother (Shirin Yazdanbakhsh) collapses after a walk in the polluted city, Niloofar finds herself forced to move out of Tehran and look after her mother in a vacation villa out of the city. Before she knows it, her selfish brother has rented out her shop and the comfortable and – almost – independent life she leads is ripped apart. She must find a way to try and ‘invert’ her life once again.

This British film was one of the standout discoveries at Toronto, and certainly its style, structure and strong performances make it a strong debut feature for theatre and opera director William Oldroyd.

The film relocates Nikolai Leskov’s 1865 novel “Lady Macbeth of the Mtensk District” to rural northern England of the 1860s, where young Katherine (an excellent Florence Pugh) is newly married to an older man in a passionless marriage of convenience and embarks on a fierce love affair with groom Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis). Its bleak nature and intelligent questions about race in British history help define Lady Macbeth as a fresh vision of the classic British costume drama.

The Man Who Saw Too MuchDirector: Trisha ZiffRating: 18+Mexico | English and Spanish dialogue with English subtitles | 88 mins

The passionate, visceral and vibrant work of photographer Enrique Metinides provides a fascinating backdrop for filmmaker Trisha Ziff, as she delves into his life and complex personality. A photographer since childhood (apparently he photographed burning buildings from firemen’s shoulders) he found fame with his hyper-violent images while working as a tabloid photographer.

To balance his reputation, he also stopped filming to help victims of incidents he was shooting, and in a reflection of his innocence he has a collection of toy fire trucks and ambulances. An enthralling and intriguing film.

Manchester by the SeaDirector: Kenneth LonerganRating: 15+ USA | English dialogue with Arabic and French subtitles | 138 mins

This beautifully made and powerfully moving film features a magnificent central performance from Casey Affleck. He plays Boston janitor Lee, a man living with pent-up grief and who has to address sadness and revelations from his past when he is notified of his brother’s death and has to reluctantly return to his close-knit hometown community and try to do the best for his brother’s 16-year-old son Patrick (Lucas Hedges).

As Lee struggles to do his best he has to face aspects of his past, in particular a moving scene where he encounters his ex-wife, wonderfully played by Michelle Williams.

Acclaimed filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur (whose work includes big budget fare such as Everest, Contraband and 2 Gungs) both directs and stars in this gritty Nordic thriller. He plays an Icelandic heart surgeon worried about the hard-partying and drug-taking lifestyle of his daughter Anna (Hera Hilmar) and decides to try and free her from her petty criminal boyfriend Ottar.

The juddering blend of styles sees the film veer between violent thriller and tough-love drama, with Kormákur delivering a strikingly brooding performance that matches the stark Icelandic landscapes.

Off Frame aka Revolution Until Victory deals with the history and development of militant cinema in the Middle East. The film researches the motives and circumstances behind this genre and questions its dramatic end in 1982.

In resurrecting a forgotten memory of struggle, Off Frame reanimates what is within the frame, but also weaves a critical reflection by looking for what is outside of it.

Acclaimed director Emir Kusturica aims for reflective magical realism in this rural folk tale/love story, and also casts himself in the lead role of a wistful milkman who attracts the loving interest of an Italo-Serbian woman (played by Monica Belluci) on the run from a British peacekeeping force general she sent to prison.

Kusturica’s character, Kosta takes milk to frontline troops in rural Bosnia and is set to marry Milena, a former champion rhythmic gymnast, but things change when Belluci’s character spots this unlikely donkey-riding lothario. Packed with oddball magical moments; some slapstick comedy as Kusturica also gets to play piano in a couple of jolly party scenes.

One More Time with Feeling (3D)Director : Andrew Dominik Rating: PG France and United Kingdom | English dialogue | 112 mins

Though on one level, Andrew Dominik’s documentary – largely shot in black and white – is a film aimed at following the recording of “Skeleton Tree”, the latest album from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, its very timing in the period after the death of Cave’s 15-year-old son Arthur, who died after a fall from a cliff near the family’s Brighton home, means that it also dwells on raw emotions, trauma and mourning.

It is an often candid film – as well as one that works musically – as Cave talks about the pain of loss as well as needing to keep on being creative; though it also reinforces the rare talent of Cave and his musicians.

Only Men go to the GraveDirector: Abdulla Al KaabiRating: 15+Arabic dialogue with English subtitles / Colour / 80 mins

After the Iraq-Iran war ended in 1988, a blind mother welcomes her estranged daughters to tell them a secret. Unfortunately, she accidentally dies while sharing it. During the funeral, the daughters try to deal with their mother’s sudden death and also work together to unveil her secret by looking for clues from visitors.

Throughout the funeral, their own lives continue to unravel, giving room for buried family tensions to gradually surface, while struggling to deal with their own secrets and deep-rooted guilt. The daughters start to question everything about their mother’s life after a peculiar encounter.

Some three hours long and shot almost entirely in a packed and cluttered Bucharest flat, this latest film from talented filmmaker Cristi Puiu (The Death of Mr Lazarescu, Aurora) is a wonderfully absorbing film. It weaves its way through a family reunion that offers a thoughtful insight into the modern-day Romanian middle-class, as Puiu observes tensions and misunderstandings as a family come together at a memorial dinner.

The encounters between the family members veer between dramatic to gently amusing, with Puiu allowing the differing characters to emerge as fully-rounded and appropriately complex people.

Acclaimed filmmaker Terrence Malick finally gets to reveal the project that he has been mulling over since the late 1970s, with this beautifully mounted film – voiced by Cate Blanchet. It details a stunning journey through the origins of the universe, through to the present time and beyond. Using impressive special effects, Malick delivers a poetic delve into the nature of life and death and on the origins of mankind, featuring mesmerising footage from the ocean floor through to the planets. If the cosmic sequence in his film The Tree of Life offered a taster, then this is on the whole, quite an awesome thing.

Withered Green is the story of young Iman, a conservative religious person, who takes people's opinions of her into account and shows uptight restriction to all the withering social traditions. However, a shocking discovery prompts her to do away with all these withered traditions that she once clung to. Withered Green is director Mohammed Hammad’s debut feature and premiered at Locarno.

Writer/director Shahrbanoo Sadat’s acclaimed film, which won a prize at the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes, shrewdly strikes a tonal balance between documentary and drama as it dwells on life in a small Afghan village, where little has changed over the years.

Sadat’s camera and story focuses largely on the children of the village, weaving together a story that subtly tackles the importance of tradition and rituals in a community, where life is tough but also supportive, and where storytelling takes its place alongside life’s lessons. It may be simple in structure and tone, but its insight and sincerity shine through.

In a dystopian future, when the water supply has been poisoned, a group of unlikely survivors has taken refuge in an abandoned hangar. They struggle to stay alive and protect one of the last remaining sources of uncontaminated water.

After a near-deadly altercation with bandits, who want to seize the water, two strangers appear to help fight off the bandits. The survivors’ leader agrees to host the strangers, as long as they conform to the camp’s rules. When one of the strangers betrays the group, the compound descends into madness, leaving only one question: who is worthy to live and to lead?

Following the great tradition of Japanese ‘seishun eiga’ (youth drama), writer/animator Makoto Shinkai’s film focuses on two teenagers – a boy and a girl. The girl, Mitsuha, lives an unhappy life in the countryside and the boy is a high-school student, Taki, whose story takes an unusual spin with the pair switching bodies in their dreams.

There is plenty of humour to be sure, but also more serious undercurrents as they struggle to deal with unexpected situations and rather unfamiliar yearnings. Shinkai is being hailed as the ‘new Miyazaki’, and while his films lack the ‘fantasy quest’ that defined Miyazaki at his best; they are certainly beautifully crafted anime fare.

2009. Tunisian nine-year-old Zaineb and her mother will rebuild their lives in Canada with a man she was in love with before she married Zaineb’s father, who died in an accident. Zaineb is told that once she is in Canada, she can finally see the snow. But she wants nothing to do with this new country, because Zaineb has decided to hate the snow.

Covering six years in the life of a charismatic young Tunisian girl and her changing family life, Zaineb Hates the Snow is a beautiful and poignant coming-of-age documentary told through the eyes of a wide-eyed little émigrée.

There were also several commissioned installations, a series of talks and workshops, plus design related exhibitions and events across the city.

My podcast partner Wael Hattar and I recorded an epsiode for our Tea With Culture podcast sharing our thoughts on the fair and reviewing some the work we saw. We also discussed the role of the festival, its impact and some of the missed opportunities by spreading itself all over the citiy.

Please have a listen to our podcast and below it are photos and tweets I shared on Twitter Moments. Did you take part/visit the festival? Let me know what were your impressions.

Participants in this hands-on session are invited to create an original piece of work and then produce multiple editions of it using a range of screen-printing methods. With a focus on techniques – rather than producing a finished work, this collaborative workshop also explores aspects of color theory and the importance of considering print and production factors in any design process.

A MENA Perspective on Visual Communication - Contemporary Practices From Across The RegionDate: 14th December 2016 Time: 18:30 - 20:00

This industry-led talk investigates contemporary practices in visual communication by highlighting various examples from across the MENA region and discussing their social, cultural, artistic and commercial influences.

Two small boys live with their sick grandmother in the mountains of the UAE. Tending their vegetables and then selling produce on the road, they have to earn enough money to buy medicine for their grandmother. This poignant film depicts their lives and the world in which they live. Sabeel won the Second Prize in the Muhr Emirati Award at the Dubai International Film Festival in 2010.

Not far from Timbuktu, now ruled by the religious fundamentalists, Kidane lives peacefully in the dunes with his wife Satima, his daughter Toya, and Issan, their twelve-year-old shepherd. In town, the people are powerless, and they suffer from the regime of terror imposed by the Jihadists determined to control their faith.

Music, laughter, cigarettes, even soccer have been banned. The women have become shadows but resist with dignity. Every day, the new improvised courts issue tragic and absurd sentences. Kidane and his family are being spared the chaos that prevails in Timbuktu. But their destiny changes when Kidane accidentally kills Amadou, the fisherman who slaughtered “GPS,” his beloved cow. He now has to face the new laws of the foreign occupants.

Timbuktu is Mauritania's first entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award.

In a contemporary world subjugated by materialism, filled with perpetual fear and unending hardships, the definition of our humanity is blurred, residing in a grey area where it becomes difficult to differentiate between the life of an object and that of a human being. I am always struggling to overcome this constant state of fear which controls me. Fear in all its forms: fear of the unknown, fear of the future (and the past), fear of materialism, of emotions... Fear, that feeling which comes over you like a tornado, destroying all other things in its way. This is why I tried to make a film about that emotion only, devoid as much as possible of any other, a film only about fear.

Mousa gets into the trouble of his life when he steals the wrong car. What he thought was an Israeli car and an easy way to make money in his impoverished Palestinian refugee camp, turns out to be a load of misfortune when he discovers a kidnapped Israeli soldier in the trunk. Mousa's hopes of paying the bribe that will guarantee him an exit visa out of the country and away from his wrecked love affair dissipate as he finds himself on the run from Palestinian militias and the Israeli intelligence.

Talk: Make it Pop - The Influence of Visual & Popular Culture in Graphic DesignDate: 9th November 2016Time: 18:30 - 20:00

This talk focuses on the symbiotic relationship between visual and popular culture and design by analyzing iconic street art, movie posters, signage and advertising, and exploring how they influenced a shift towards a more graphic style of visual communication, both as a commercial tool and a valid form of artistic expression.

Nancy Skolos, Dean of Architecture and Design, Rhodes Island School of Design, USA

Rana Salam, Art Director/Consultant on Middle Eastern popular culture

Tarek Atrissi, Founder, Tarek Atrissi Design, Spain

Workshop: From Film to Paper - The Poster Design ExperimentDate: 16th November 2016Time: 17:00 - 20:00

Participants in this workshop watch a short film, discuss its content and meaning, and then construct an original poster combining typography and visual imagery inspired by the film’s themes, messages and characters.

This month's line up at the NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Center looks exceptional, it includes a "concert novel", piano karaoke, large-scale performance-installation in an aquarium and a play reading festival.

All the events are free to attend, but you must book tickets online in advance. Click on each title below for more information.

Notes of a Native SongWhen: Wednesday, 2nd November at 8.00pm Thursday, 3rd November at 4.00pm and 8.00pm Where: Black Box at NYU Abu Dhabi

Reveling in the inherent theatricality of rock and roll performance, Notes of a Native Song combines Stew’s incisive, poignant, and funny storytelling with already-on-their-way-to-being classic songs inspired by playwright, novelist, and essayist James Baldwin.

Created by Tony Award- and Obie Award-winning playwright/singer-songwriter Stew (Passing Strange) and co-composed with his Obie Award-winning, Tony-nominated longtime collaborator Heidi Rodewald, Native Song is spirited and engaging a “concert novel” exploring Baldwin’s life and work that is already acclaimed by audiences in Harlem and San Francisco. Stew’s electric stage presence and the deep beauty and intelligence of his and Heidi’s songs are backed by a virtuoso band.

Pianist Joe McGinty (leader of NYC’s famed Losers Lounge) brings the popular NY piano bar scene to Abu Dhabi. The playlist features hundreds of songs for you to choose from. Make a request to the pianist and get ready to sing along. Go solo (1950s style) or get the whole audience involved.

Performers inhabit a large aquarium in a visceral large-scale performance-installation that embodies the trauma of global climate change.

Lars Jan’s Holoscenes is a large-scale performance-installation that embodies the trauma of flooding. It is a visceral, cross-disciplinary project born out of the widely-shared concern that our troubled relationship to water will become the central issue of the 21st century. The project directly connects the everyday actions of individuals to global climate change, while contemplating the evolution of our capacities for empathy and long-term thinking.

Presented in public space, the centerpiece of Holoscenes is a large aquarium that floods, drains, and floods again. The flooding aquarium is inhabited by a rotating cast of performers conducting everyday behaviors sourced from collaborators across the planet.

Created by Lars Jan / Early Morning Opera Produced by MAPP International Productions

A festival of staged readings featuring plays by Arab and Arab-American writers and their diverse stories of life in Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon — as well as in their characters’ adopted countries—and illuminates lives behind the headlines with candor, generosity and humor. Curated by Catherine Coray and co-produced by Gaar Adams and the NYU Abu Dhabi Theater Program.

Saturday, November 26th at 2.00pmOH MY SWEETLAND- Written and directed by Amir Nizar ZuabiWritten in response to a journey taken by Zuabi and Corinne Jaber to the Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, where they met people “in the harshest moments of their life, yet still they were generous, full of grace, hope and even humour…this piece is inspired by their stores, but more than anything it is inspired by their spirit—that elastic rubber-like ability man has to adapt and to weather the storm.”

Saturday, November 26th at 7.00pmTHEHOUR OF FEELING - Written and directed by Mona MansourIt’s 1967 and the map of the Middle East is about to change drastically. Fueled by a love of English Romantic poetry, Adham journeys from Palestine to London with his new wife, Abir, to deliver a career-defining lecture. As the young couple’s marriage is tested, Adham struggles to reconcile his ambitions with the pull of family and home. But what if seizing the moment means letting go of everything he knows?

Monday, 28th November at 7.00pm FOOD AND FADWA - Written by Lameece Issaq and Jacob Kader Directed by Shana Gold Meet Fadwa Faranesh, an unmarried, 30-something Palestinian woman living in Bethlehem in the politically volatile West Bank. Known for her delectable cooking and deep-seated sense of duty to her family and aging father, our kitchen maven insists on continuing the preparations for the wedding of her younger sister, despite constraints of daily life under occupation. Politics blend with family tensions to create a sometimes humorous and sometimes heartbreaking meal. This new play melds the fight a Palestinian family wages to hold onto its traditional culture with its need to celebrate love, joy and hope.

The third edition of European Film Screenings is back, starting today and ends on 27th October 2016. The screenings will take place in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and this year's edition will include a selection of Arab-European films too. dedicate an entire Arab-European features programme.

The screenings are free to attend and seating is on a first come, first serve basis. Based on the past two years, the seats get filled up quite fast, so attendees are advised to turn up at least 40mins before each screening.

Below is the line up and the schedule.

If I had to pick my top five from this selection, I'd say make sure you don't miss Arabian Nights Vol.1 (Portugal), Very Big Shot (Lebanon) - I recently wrote about it here, Goodnight Mommy (Austria), The Lobster (Ireland), The Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Sweden).

Koza is a former Olympic boxer. He and his partner, Miša, live in a dilapidated housing estate, constantly struggling to make ends meet. Miša learns that she is expecting a child and decides to terminate her pregnancy. Koza, who has not trained in a while, steps back into the ring, hoping to earn some much-needed cash and possibly change Miša's mind.

Fifty-year-old Michel is a computer graphics artist who has a passion for the aerial postal service and dreams of the French aviator Jean Mermoz whenever he hops on his scooter, even though he has never piloted a plane. One day, a series of photos of a kayak stop Michel in his tracks as the kayak looks just like fuselage.

Brothers, Grass and Cobra Snake, come from a dysfunctional family and feel unsatisfied with their lives. Grass, unemployed and still without a girlfriend, does not know how to escape from the shadow of his druggie and troublemaker brother, Cobra. Just as things begin to change for Grass when he gets the opportunity to be part of a promising business and starts a relationship, Cobra shows up and threatens his newfound stable life. This time, Grass decides to teach his brother a life lesson he should never forget.

Haussarrest portrays the story of Max, who was sentenced to six months of house arrest. An electronic monitoring unit called Percy helps him through his new daily life, where he struggles to maintain a healthy relationship with his wife. One day, Max realizes just how much influence Percy has on his life and only sees one option to cut their ties.

Lucens | Director: Marcel Barelli

Lucens is the “tragicomic” story of the first and last nuclear power plant 100% made in Switzerland. Using animated funny characters, in his short movie, Marcel Barelli, successfully manages to use humor, to tell the story of what could well have become a terrible nuclear accident in Switzerland. Entertaining, fun and full of second degree humor, this short movie won’t leave the audience indifferent.

Nirin | Director: Josua Hotz

Nirin is 6 years old. His mother had promised they would go on a lovely long trip and Nirin is eagerly looking forward to discovering his country on a journey in a bush taxi, together with his two younger brothers. It’s the first time he’s leaving his native village in Madagascar. However, this great journey doesn’t turn out the way Nirin had imagined it.

Subotika: Land of Wonders | Director: Peter Volkart

Subotika, a little-known island on the other side of the globe, endeavors to step up tourism in the Republic. In this dynamic, the Foreign Minister commissions an advertising movie, which portray an enchanting country, with extraordinary sights, grand visions, and a couple of minor problems.

Suspendu | Director: Elie Grappe

At dawn, in a great classical dance conservatory, a boy falls while rehearsing some movements. Something breaks in his foot, causing him sharp pain. But it is exams day and the boy refuses to quit: he tries to face his dance partner and classmates, convincing himself his body has no limits.

Ricky Rapper and the Nighthawk

Director: Timo Koivusalo | Finland 2016 | Comedy/Family/Music | 72min

Abu Dhabi: 21st October, 3:00pm,The Mall at World Trade Centre, Cinema 8 Dubai: 22nd October, 3:00pm,Ibn Battuta Mall, Cinema 12 When out digging for angleworms one day, Ricky Rapper happens to find a treasure, and an archeological excavation is initiated at the scene. After a valuable ring dating back to the Iron Age disappears soon after it is found, it seems certain that a thieving nighthawk is in the neighborhood, scavenging the excavation.

With the intention to get to the bottom of all the bizarre turn of events, Ricky turns into an international adventurer who embarks on a hunt for the mysterious nighthawk.

The film is based on the successful children’s book of the same name which is written by Paul van Loon. The lives of Mr. Frans’ pupils are turned upside down when they discover that their teacher sometimes turns into a frog. Two kids see it as their task to protect his secret and to keep him out of the beak of a stork.

After a run in with the law, Aylin - a 17-year-old Muslim girl and part of the Turkish Diaspora - finds herself sentenced to community service at an out-of-town horse stable in Germany. Beset by troubles at home and school, it is here that she, despite all odds, is set on the road to self-discovery.

As the pace quickens, her blossoming relationship with the stallion Hördur and her fledgling dreams are tested to the breaking point. Can Aylin build a bridge between worlds? And if she can, will others follow?

Let Them Come

Director: Salem Brahimi | Algeria 2015 | Drama/War | 95min

Dubai: 21st October, 9:00pm, Dubai Festival City mall, Cinema 10

A Mediterranean chronicle of a family that has been let down by history. This is the story of Yasmina and Noureddine, who have to contend with the pressures of a domineering mother, a country that is adrift and the ruthless barbarity of extremism. Let Them Come is an adaptation of the novel by Arezki Mellal, who co-wrote the script.

A young Peruvian bear travels to London in search of a home. Finding himself lost and alone at Paddington Station, he meets the kindly Brown family, who offer him a temporary haven. But when Paddington catches the eye of a sinister, seductive taxidermist, it isn’t long before his home – and very existence – is under threat.

In a dystopian near future, single people, according to the laws of The City, are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged to find a romantic partner in forty-five days or are transformed into beasts and sent off into The Woods.

Like a modern day Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Sam and Jonathan, two traveling salesmen peddling novelty items, take us on a kaleidoscopic wandering through human destiny. It is a journey that unveils the beauty of single moments, the pettiness of others, the humor and tragedy hidden within us, life’s grandeur as well as the ultimate frailty of humanity.

Modris, a 17-year-old, who has a gambling addiction that makes his relationship with his mother difficult, since she keeps on reminding him that his father is in prison, so Modris must have inherited his bad genes. He pawns his mother’s electric heater so he can play the slot machines.

She betrays him to the police and, and as he begins his adventures in the Latvian justice system, his relationship to the outside world changes. Soon he becomes determined to find the father he never knew.

Ten-year-old twins wait for their mother. When she comes back, her head wrapped in bandages after plastic surgery, nothing is as it was before. Stern and distant now, she shuts the family off from the outside world. Starting to doubt that this woman is actually their mother, the boys are determined to find the truth by any means.

Abdullah

Director: Humaid Alsuwaidi | UAE | 2015 | Drama | 97min

Dubai: 23rd October, 9:00pm, Dubai Festival City, Cinema 10

Growing up in a very conservative family where many things are ‘haram’ (forbidden in Islam), Abdullah struggles over the years to hide his love for music.

Margherita, a film director in the middle of an existential crisis, has to deal with the inevitable and still unacceptable loss of her mother. Margherita has just left her life partner and she has become unable to relate to her teenage daughter.

On the professional level, she is in conflict not only with her crew but also, and primarily, with Barry Huggins, a well-known American actor of Italian origin, who proves awfully bad and uncontrollable.

Three brothers find themselves in the middle of a struggle with an armed man. One of the brothers, Ziad, shoots the man dead. His brother Jad, however, takes the fall and is sent to jail. Five years later, Ziad has turned their modest family bakery into a drug dealing hub for a local gangster.

With Jad’s imminent release, however, he wants to go legit, much to the chagrin of his boss, who asks him to do one last drop-off. When that-drop off is across the border in war-torn Syria, anything can happen.

The Spanish deep South, 1980. A series of brutal murders of adolescent girls in a remote and forgotten town bring together two disparate characters - both detectives in the homicide division - to investigate the cases. With deep divisions in their ideology, detectives Juan and Pedro must put aside their differences if they are to successfully hunt down a killer who for years has terrorized a community in the shadow of a general disregard for women rooted in a misogynistic past.

In Portugal, a film director proposes to build fictional stories from the miserable reality he is immersed in. As he fails to find meaning in his work, he cowardly runs away and leaves the beautiful Scheherazade to stand in his shoes. She will require enthusiasm and courage so as not to bore the King with sad stories of this country. Therefore, Scheherazade organizes the stories she tells the King in three volumes.

The Curve

Director: Rifqi Assaf | Jordan | 2015 | Drama | 80min

Dubai: 25th October, 9:00pm,Dubai Festival City, Cinema 10

The Curve is about Radi, who leads a reclusive life in his own van, finds himself on a road trip with three strangers that alters his clockwork and very private lifestyle.

This film does not deal with Chernobyl, but rather with the world of Chernobyl, about which we know very little. Eyewitness reports have survived: scientists, teachers, journalists, couples, children. They tell of their old daily lives, then of the catastrophe. Their voices form a long, terrible but necessary supplication which traverses borders and stimulates us to question our status quo.

A story of love, friendship and the pursuit of adventure during the bloody and brutal reality of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

Al Medina

Director: Omar Shargawi | Jordan / Denmark | 2015 | Drama | 90min

Dubai: 26th October, 9:00pm, Dubai Festival City, Cinema 10

Yusif decides to go back to his hometown, Al Medina, along with his Danish pregnant wife Sarah. His God-fearing heart is following a dream of returning to his roots searching for peace and happiness with his wife and unborn child. When he mistakenly kills a child beggar, his life changes irrevocably, thrusting him into Al Medina’s dark side.

The film follows two special-natured brothers, Elias and Gabriel. After their father’s passing, they find out through the father’s will, that they are adopted. Despite their disagreements, Elias and Gabriel decide to seek out their biological father, and set out to the island where he lives. Surrounded by the island’s many odd personalities, they discover a most paralyzing yet liberating truth about themselves and their family.